Please note: the following post has nothing whatsoever to do with Australian Greyhound racing. However, if you’re an all-round punter, you may find the news interesting.

We’re proud to announce the launch of our sister site, nrl-odds.com.au. The site focuses on all the best NRL Odds, tips, and NRL betting news for the Australian punter. If you wager on the footy, then we’d strongly encourage you to visit the site, and consider signing up for our free newsletter via email. Each round we offer tips on who to take in the week’s betting, full team lists and more inside news than you can shake a stick at.

If you’re interested, the site can be visited here.

Thanks for your time. We won’t be changing this site’s focus, don’t worry… this is a one-time announcement. From now on, we’re back to all things greyhound related here!

In a massive coup, bookmaker Centrebet have announced a major sponsorship breakthrough with a racing code.

Never before has any Australian thoroughbred, harness or greyhound administrative bodies broken ranks and accepted a sponsorship deal with a betting organisation outside of the TAB. However, Centrebet announced on Wednesday a massive deal with the NSW Greyhound Breeders Owners and Trainers Association (GBOTA) over three years worth more than $600,000.

Centrebet will have signage at all major GBOTA tracks including Wentworth Park, Bulli, Dapto, Bathurst, Gosford and Lismore as well as sponsoring many races including the Group I Vic Peters Classic, run at Wentworth Park in October.

Centrebet is now betting fixed odds on all Wentworth Park Friday and Saturday meetings and will run various on-course promotions throughout the racing year.

Keep an eye out for Centrebet promotions on this site in the coming weeks.

The Sandown Greyhounds Racing Club Committee has announced Cosmic Chief, Enry Walt, Push The Paint and So Seductive as the 2010 Group 3 Macro Meats Shootout finalists. The initial eleven nominations were trimmed to four, leaving a very strong field to contest the race.

Cosmic Chief, Enry Walt and Push The Paint have all shown extremely speedy times at Sandown, and So Seductive is certainly a talented sprinter prior to stepping up the distance… so the contest will definitely be a close one.

See below for the field and box draw.

Sandown Shootout Field and Box Draw

• Box 1 – Push The Paint Angela Langton
• VACANT BOX
• Box 3 – So Seductive Kelvyn Greenough
• VACANT BOX
• Box 5 – Cosmic Chief Darren Brown
• VACANT BOX
• Box 7 – Enry Walt Gary Ennis
• VACANT BOX
• Smooth Fancy Anthony Azzopardi 1st Res
• Perfect Fancy Darren McDonald 2nd Res

The 2010 Sandown shootout will be run on Thursday 4 November, with a “$25,000 winner-takes-all” bag up for grabs.

Yes, I’m well aware that this is month’s old by now… but I only just came across the video on Youtube finally. Poor old #4.

We thought we should take the time to highlight a few ways that australiagreyhoundracing.com offers to keep you updated on all the latest news, tipping, fields, box draws and results! We offer free updates to anyone who wants them, and being added to the subscription list takes no more than 30 seconds.
Here are some of the options available:

Free Email Updates

If you’d like our news delivered straight to your email inbox, then all you have to do is enter your email address into the box located on the right hand side of the website… see it over there, the one that says “Subscribe and get email updates whenever we update!”? That subscription box is available on every page of this website, so it’s always within easy reach. In fact, we’ll enter a box below for you to use too….

Our email system is run through Google, so it’s totally reliable, secure, and best of all, free. So if you’d like our new posts sent directly to your inbox, then sign up today!

Free RSS Subscription

If you have an RSS reader, then subscribing to our RSS feed is an easy way to be updated whenever we post more information. All you have to do to get these updates is click on the “Subscribe” link in the right hand menu above. Again, this link is available on every page of the website, so you can subscribe from any page. In fact, here’s the link to click on to subscribe right here, via RSS:

Click here to subscribe via RSS!

Again, in order to subscribe to RSS updates, you’ll first need a free RSS reader. We’d suggest Google Reader, as it’s simple to use and involves almost no set up.

Other Ways to hear the news first!

While we’d suggest either email updates or RSS updates as the fastest way to be updated on all our news, we also have two separate methods of spreading the news about our site. First off, we have a very active and vibrant community running on Facebook, so if you would like to become a member, then simply visit the page here. There is a great amount of discussion that takes place on this page, so why not get involved and get to know some other greyhound lovers?
Another one for the “social network” lovers out there, we also have a Twitter profile which we use to spread news about our new posts. Our twitter profile can be found here, so if you’re a twitter user, why not hook up with us there?

All in all, it’s easy to keep in touch…

… so why not connect today? By connecting with us – whether through email, RSS, Facebook or Twitter – you’ll always be sure to know the latest Australia greyhound racing news as it happens.

Welcome back, and happy new year from the team at Australiagreyhoundracing.com! We hope all our visitors had a safe and happy festive season. We took a brief break over the Christmas/New Year period, but we’re back now, recharged and raring to go!

What’s been happening while we’ve been gone?

Here’s a quick recap to get you up to speed:

• Well, first, we thought we would point you towards our Australia Greyhound Racing.com fan page on Facebook. If you have a facebook account, and you’re at all interested in this website, then you should definitely consider becoming a fan of the page. Its seems like just yesterday we were celebrating its 200th fan, but while we were gone over the festive season, the page picked up another 100 fans, now numbering over 300 members! Thanks to everyone who has contributed to the community – both there and on this site itself. There’s a great amount of discussion that takes place on the page, so why not pop past and say hello?
  While we’re on the topic, don’t forget that you can leave comments on any of the posts we put up on this site; we love hearing your opinion!
• In results, Mantra Lad managed to fend off a spirited challenge from Next Top Model to win the $50 000 2009 Sale Cup final on Boxing Day, by just three quarters of a length. Below, we’ve included full results for the race:

• Finally, in the “Random Reads” section, we came across this nice piece on Brett Lee from the Herald Sun, who rate him as the best greyhound of the decade. You can read the piece here.

It would be interesting to hear your thoughts on that comment of “the best greyhound of the decade”. Would you agree or disagree?

That’s about it from the catch up department. Now that the crazy holidays are over, regular updates will resume on this site; so be sure to subscribe to the RSS feed or subscribe to our email list in the right hand sidebar!

Considering Thursday night is just two nights away, we thought we would remind all fans that the 10 December – Thursday, this week – is going to be a great night for fans of Australian greyhound racing! Not only will the night see the highly anticipated final for the 2009 Group 1 Sky Channel Brisbane Cup, but the night also sees the heats run for the 2009 Wrest Point Casino Hobart Thousand.

We’ve written previously regarding the 2009 Group 1 Sky Channel Brisbane Cup with a dedicated page here, and all posts tagged under that race can be viewed here.

Likewise, our dedicated page for the 2009 Wrest Point Casino Hobart Thousand can be found here, and all posts tagged under that race can be viewed here.

Either way, the night is sure to be captivating for many fans of the sports, and we’ll be sure to update australiagreyhoundracing.com with all the news as it happens!

If you’re looking to take a punt on any of the races on the night, then be sure to sign up with Sportsbet by clicking this link, and taking advantage of their $200 Free Bet Bundle when creating an account!

Came across this article in the “Albert & Logan News” (see original article here), and thought it was worthwhile sharing with our readers, particularly those in Queensland. If all goes according to plan, Queensland punters could get another facility as early as the first quarter of 2011. The full article is reproduced below:

GREYHOUNDS Queensland (GQL) is just one step away from beginning construction on a multi-million-dollar racing facility at Slacks Creek with the proposal now hinging on a final tick of approval from the council.
The group announced this week that it would lodge a development application with Logan City Council within the next two weeks in a bid to get a decision in the first quarter of 2010.
If approved, work on the facility could begin in June, with the first race meeting just nine months later.
GQL general manager Darren Beavis said getting council to tick off on the proposal was the last hurdle in a plan which had spanned more than two years.
He said the group would spend $10 million on the first stage of the facility using compensation from closure of the Parklands track last year.
“It’s been a long, involved process that probably goes back to 2007,’’ he said.
“The industry has certainly been hanging out for it and it’s great to see it come to fruition.
“We’re going to have a facility which we are going to own and it’s something the industry desperately needs.’’
Mr Beavis said while the group would meet with the State Government this week the plan had already received interim approval which would see the land transferred to GQL.
The Cronulla Park site, at the corner of Kingston and Compton roads, passed extensive soil testing earlier this year allaying concerns over its former use as a council dump.
The facility will host two meetings a week once completed, easing the industry’s reliance on tracks at Albion Park and Ipswich.
Veteran greyhound trainer Paul Felgate from Alberton said racing would provide great benefits for the community and national exposure for Logan.
He said the track would also be advantageous for the city’s greyhound racing community, which he believed was the largest in Queensland.
“It would honestly be the best thing for the area,’’ he said.
Logan City deputy mayor Russell Lutton said council had already given the proposal “in principal” approval.

This is obviously great news for fans of Australian greyhound racing in Queensland!

Trainer Graeme Bate has had to retire two of his greyhounds from racing. The first, Velocette, was officially retired (as suspected) after sustaining a back injury in last month’s Melbourne Cup heats. Velocette leaves behind an outstanding Australian greyhound racing career, highlights of which include five Group wins including victory in the coveted Group 1 Australian Cup.

The second – and absolutely shocking – career end belongs to that of star runner Amity Bale, who following last night’s race in the Group 3 Newcastle Cup at The Gardens, suffered a severe hock injury during the race. Veterinary inspection that took place following the race revealed a fractured hock for the Graeme Bate trained staying star. Amity Bale officially retires with 72 career race starts, with 31 wins, 24 placings and total career earnings of $275,195. However, there would be few who would not admit that Amity Bale seemed to only be coming into her stride in recent times, and that a great future as a Group1 champion lay ahead.

We can’t help but feel immensely sad at the recent events, particularly considering the bright star we saw in Amity Bale’s future.

In order to better serve our readers with up to date greyhound racing news, tips and results, we’ve decided to start up a Twitter account for users to follow. We will use this twitter account to alert you to any new posts on our greyhound racing blog, and to any industry news as it happens.

So for those of you who are Twitter users, feel free to follow us here: twitter.com/aussiegreys.